“Morning!” Bordan called as he pushed open the door to the guild hall.

Fiona looked up from behind the counter with a troubled expression, although it softened when she saw Leodin and Salissa enter behind the cheerful veteran. “Good morning. I was glad to hear that you’re back, you two. I hope you had a good time in the capital?”

“It was nice,” Salissa answered.

“But dull,” Leodin added. “We’re just happy to get back out again.”

“About that,” Fiona sighed, her frown returning. “I’m afraid that won’t be happening today.”

“Wait what?” Bordan asked, confused. “Why? Did you end up giving somebody else the job?”

“No, I held it for you as you asked. As of this morning, there is a chapter-wide freeze on all requests. Nobody leaves the city.”

The adventurers exchanged puzzled expressions.

“Why?” Edwin asked. “Did something happen?”

“I couldn’t tell you,” Fiona replied with a sigh, looking down at the mess of papers on her desk with an unhappy expression. “All I know is that first thing this morning Master Hector came barging in and issued the freeze, then rushed back out.”

The adventurers exchanged questioning looks.

“What does it mean?” Leodin asked. “I haven’t heard of people not being allowed to take requests before.”

“It’s meant for emergencies, like gathering a suppression force for a goblin nest, but I haven’t seen it used before,” Fiona answered while distractedly reorganizing her papers. “Really, I don’t know anything else either. Maybe it’s just a precaution and things will go back to normal soon, but for now, that’s all I have, sorry.”

“Well, thanks anyway,” Bordan said and the party stepped away from the counter.

“What now?” Salissa asked the question on everybody’s mind.

“Nothing we can do I guess,” Bordan sighed. “Let’s just hope whatever is going on clears up soon.”

“Want to head out to the yard?” Edwin asked. “We’re all dressed up anyway, might as well get some training in before the recruits show up and it gets crowded.”

--- ----- ---

After a good session of sparring to shake the rust off, the four of them left the yard when the recruits started to trickle in for their day’s training. Fiona had nothing new to tell them, so they wandered out onto the square. As they were trying to decide how to proceed, Edwin spotted a small crowd that had formed at the announcement board, and they headed over to the small pavilion at the corner of the square.

The announcement boards were the primary way to keep the citizens up to date on what went on in the world, as well as to disseminate ducal decrees. The news arrived by bird from the capital and was then further spread into the surrounding towns and villages by caravans and messengers. In the cities, large, wooden boards were set up in every square, with an armed guardsman to make sure that nobody took or defaced the notices.

Arriving at the back of the crowd, the adventurers had a hard time figuring out what the fuss was about. A delicate application of Edwin’s size and mass allowed them to get to the front quickly, however.

“Master Monrei is dead?” Salissa read with shock.

“Who?” Edwin asked.

“How do you not know who Master Monrei is?” Salissa asked, disbelief clear on her face. “He’s probably the most famous mage alive. Or was, I suppose.”

“I have nothing to do with magic and even I’ve heard of him.” Bordan agreed with a nod.

“He was the faculty head of healing in Marrad,” Salissa explained when she saw Edwin’s raised eyebrow. “They say he was the most gifted healer since the exile, and a strong voice in the non-interventionist camp.”

“You’re interested in College politics?” Edwin asked, surprised.

“No, he was meant to give a speech at the Harvand College a few months after… the incident that forced me to leave. Everyone was really excited about meeting him.”

“It says the cause of death is unknown.” Bordan read. “So it wasn’t just his age? He was quite old, wasn’t he?”

“At least eighty, I think,” Salissa said. “Why wouldn’t they know how he died? What else does it say?”

“A few days ago… found in his home… cause unknown.” Bordan read out loud. “Weird.”

“A healer named Monrei, was it?” Edwin asked, wrinkling his brow. “You know what, I did know him. The name just didn’t come to me right away.”

“See, I knew you’d have to have heard of him,” Salissa said. “Everybody has.”

“Right,” Edwin said distractedly as Walter’s memories rose to the surface unbidden. He hadn’t heard of Monrei, after all. Once, many years ago, Walter had met the man.

He had been in his early thirties then, a journeyman ritualist who was just starting to stand out from his peers in the research department when all three branches of the College had launched a joint research program, bringing together some of the brightest minds of the time to design rituals meant for healing. This had been a big step forward, and something that many people had been working towards for years. Before then, rituals using healing magic had been deemed too dangerous, and experimentation and research into them had been forbidden. Faculty heads on both sides had argued and lobbied against that decision until finally it had been overturned.

The host of the convention had been the Marrad branch, so the Harvand delegation had packed their things and headed south on the coastal road.

A journeyman of healing and a few years Edwin’s junior, Monrei had already been the rising star of his faculty even then. He had been very outgoing and charismatic, something that would usually have put Walter off, who was himself much more withdrawn. After only a few days of working together, the two journeymen quickly realized that while their personalities were almost polar opposites, they had a lot in common. Both were highly competent in their respective fields and practically burned with passion for their unique opportunity to be a part of history. What followed had been a few very enjoyable weeks as the team worked to broaden the horizons of what was considered possible by day and were dragged through Pel Ister’s bars and taverns by their local colleagues after nightfall.

A smile slowly spread across Edwin’s face as Walter remembered heated discussions over scribbled diagrams and a drunk Monrei dancing on a table in a run-down dockside bar.

Healing is my passion, he remembered the man drunkenly slurring with an arm around Walter’s shoulder, but wine is my calling!

They had finished their project much too soon and Walter had returned to Harvand, ending their budding friendship before it could really begin. In the decade that followed, the only time the two met had been a brief handshake and a few words exchanged in a hallway.

So he made faculty head, huh? Walter mused. I wonder if I could’ve done so too if I’d stayed.

He shook his head, driving away the stray thought. Becoming faculty head wasn’t about skill or competence, it was about persuasiveness and politics, two things Walter had always been terrible at. Staying would simply have led to more of the same: Walter withdrawing ever deeper into himself while others took credit for his work. On the other hand, leaving had led to the construction of the Immortalizer. Even now, merely thinking of his Great Work filled Walter with pride and satisfaction as well as a tinge of longing. He yearned for the purity of his research, to walk across the perfect lines inlaid into the concentric stone rings and hear the clacking of his feet echo through the massive chamber…

“Anybody in there?” Salissa asked, snapping her fingers in front of Edwin’s face. He blinked as Walter’s mind receded into his buried core and Edwin rose to the surface.

“Just lost in thought,” he replied. “Come on, I better get a move on before the people stuck behind me stage a riot.”